The present invention relates generally to systems and methods for reprinting digitized documents, and more particularly to the removal of artifacts from such documents.
Digital content creation and conversion is a significant activity in modern times. Not only are existing digital files and documents being created and saved, but new digital information is being created from other non-digital information mediums, including contemporary and historic book and magazine collections previously stored in libraries, vaults, etc., but also photos and other images, herein generally labeled as “documents”.
A common technique for digitizing such documents is to scan them using scanners or digital cameras. Regardless of how such items are scanned the process almost always introduces and/or reveals some artifacts.
The kind of artifacts introduced can vary widely. In addition the original documents may have artifacts due to age or how they were handled. Some of the common artifacts introduced during the scanning process include: shadows, gutter lines, including portions of adjacent pages, and page stack shadow.
In order to produce legible and clean copies, artifacts introduced during the scanning process need to be removed. If some of the artifacts present in the original document, perhaps due to aging and handling, could also be removed as well, the resultant digital version of the document would be that much more legible.
Most present implementations strive to identify the artifacts and remove them one by one. It is not always possible however to identify all of these artifacts. This leads to document pages that are not properly cleaned such that some of the artifact residue still remains.
In response to the concerns discussed above, what is needed is a system and method for artifact removal that overcomes the problems of the prior art.